Portrait From The Infantry

A poem by Alan Dugan

He smelled bad and was red-eyed with the miseries

of being scared while sleepless when he said

this: “I want a private woman, peace and quiet,

and some green stuff in my pocket. Fuck

the rest.” Pity the underwear and socks,

long burnt, of an accomplished murderer,

oh God, of germans and replacements, who

refused three stripes to keep his B.A.R.,

who fought, fought not to fight some days

like any good small businessman of war,

and dug more holes than an outside dog

to modify some Freudian’s thesis: “No

man can stand three hundred days

of fear of mutilation and death.” What he

theorized was a joke: “To keep a tight

asshole, dry socks and a you-deep hole

with you at all times.” Afterwards,

met in a sports shirt with a round wife, he was

the clean slave of a daughter, a power brake

and beer. To me, he seemed diminished

in his dream, or else enlarged, who knows?,

by its accomplishment: personal life

wrung from mass issues in a bloody time

and lived out hiddenly. Aside from sound

baseball talk, his only interesting remark

was, in pointing to his wife’s belly, “If

he comes out left foot first” (the way

you Forward March!), “I am going to stuff

him back up.” “Isn’t he awful?” she said.

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Poems in English 

• V: Some Verses: To The Author Parthenius by William Alexander by William Alexander
• To Prince Charles by William Alexander by William Alexander
• To his Majestie by William Alexander by William Alexander
• The Sonnet, The Lady, And The Prince by William Alexander by William Alexander
• The Roses And The Mothers Cannot Choose by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 58 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 57 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 56 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 55 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 54 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 53 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 52 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 51 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 50 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 5 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 49 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 48 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 47 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 44 by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Sonet 43 by William Alexander by William Alexander

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